The Soccer Field

The soccer field was established in 1934 and is the finest soccer field in Lunenburg County. It is in daily use by the Soccer Association, casual groups, the Mahone Bay Alternative School, by summer drama camps, and just by parents out for a walk with kids who enjoy running fast on its vast greenness. The cost of replacing this field would be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The new field at Bayview School is not nearly as good a playing field, would be very expensive to upgrade, and furthermore is privately owned, as the new school is a P3 (public-private partnership) school.

Youth drama camps held at the Mahone Bay Centre use the field on a daily basis in the summer. Having this kind of public space available adds many possibilities to the activities held at the Centre.

The field is a true asset of the Town. It also draws in people from the surrounding areas for various activities. Once in town, people will be inclined to shop and dine here rather than elsewhere.

“This is my soccer field petition”— by Matthew Langille, age 11

Good morning fellow students and Mrs. Kirk-Baker. The topic I have picked is a big concern here in Mahone Bay. The town has agreed to put the soccer field and surrounding property up for sale. I’m only a 11 year old boy that has been playing soccer for just about my whole life and I think that this is very sad news. The town needs to save the field because they need to help keep the kids active and healthy.

The town of Mahone Bay shouldn’t sell the field.The town should only sell the property that joins on the field which I heard is possible because there are two entries to this property. If the field is sold with the property that may mean that there might not be a soccer field to use in Mahone Bay at all. Because the one at Bayview Community is owned by Nova Learning which means that Nova Learning could kick the soccer association off the field at anytime. Also the field at Bayview is not as nice because of the huge hump in the middle. I’ve heard alot of complaints about it during school soccer.

It is very disappointing to know that the town of Mahone Bay would rather do more for the seniors like sell the property for condos, rentals, assisted living homes, nursing homes and even a swimming pool for the seniors. There are already condos that are not sold and lots of houses for sale. The town already has a public pool for everyone to use.

It would be a shame to see this field turned into a pool because it is one of the best fields in Nova Scotia that I have played soccer on.

The Mahone Bay soccer association has grown so that the one soccer field is not enough for about 100-150 children playing soccer. The plan is to be able to use the old school soccer field, bayview community soccer field and also the baseball field to accommodate all kids playing soccer. But using the baseball field is a problem because if the baseball players are there first they use the field.

I think the town of Mahone Bay should save the soccer field and give the soccer field a proper name like THE BOB SAYER MEMORIAL SOCCER FIELD insist of the old mahone bay school field.

I believe we all need to stick together and try to stop the Town of Mahone Bay from selling this wonderful soccer field. Once this field is gone it will be gone. It will cost too much money to have it replaced.